Rommel's Strategy

My strategy has been very effective for me, so I thought I would share it. It is also open to suggestions and modifications based on user preference, which is why I have enjoyed it so much.

First, some players will tell you that having four minions is for geniuses and too difficult to manage until you are experienced. While to some extent I agree, minions get very expensive the stronger your team gets. Also, look at the top characters, they are nearly all four minion teams. Most spells or enchantments, or tattoos work with an added bonus when affecting more minions. Thus, you should start with a nice cheap, four minion team.

The first two minions will be your enchanters. They will, nearly every battle, sacrifice themselves to let you live. Have one (doesn't matter which, as neither of them will last too long) train everything into Ablative Shield (AS). This will enable your damage dealers survive long enough to do their job. Have the second train either Antimagic Field (AmF), or Dispel Magic (DM). This will lessen the damage from the extremely high number of mage teams out there. I use AMF because most of the teams I fight use FB or CoC mages, and AMF reflects damage back on them. However DM has a lot to be said for it in that it will lessen the damage dealt by Direct Damage Spells (DD) (though not reflecting any back), as well as lessening the effect of Enchant Offense (EO) and Enchant Defense (ED) spells. This is one of those beloved flexible options I was praising earlier.

For the third minion, train a DD spell (I heavily recommend Fireball, especially for new players, because it fires in ranged rounds, unlike Cone of Cold, and it does more damage than Magic Missile). Now another of those options comes up. You can either have purely DD on this minion, or add Guardian Angel (GA). I added GA to avoid stalemates when both of my damage dealers were killed before my enchanters. Note: If you choose to leave the GA off and stick to pure DD, I recommend placing this minion in the last position as it will be your main damage dealer.

For the final minion, give it the same DD spell as your other damage dealer. Also train Protection at one third of your DD level (I recommend stopping training Protection when it reaches a level of 66,000 (21) as this is the best effect for your exp. However, at very high levels, you may decide to up it a little more).

Now, you have your team. This team works well without items, leaving you free to spend your cash on g (BA) (a wise decision). But if you are like me, you will want to buy some items to enhance your team. I recommend these once you have the money:

Cloak of the Istari - Until you can afford it, use normal CloakAlatar's Gloves - Until you can afford it, use Leather GlovesDisplacement Boots - Until you can afford it, use Pair of Leather BootsCornuthaum - Till you can afford it (or if you chose to go with pure DD) use Hard Leather Cap You can also use a tattoo if you like. I use (and recommend) a Rune of Enlightenment (RoE) because it (on a four minion team) gives 80% exp bonus to it's wearer. That is a huge advantage. You can cycle this through your minions to keep them at even levels, or you can use it only on your Mages for added damage. You can also use any Familiar tattoos (ex. g (FF), Steel Familiar (SF), Ice Familiar (IF)) as long as it corresponds to the DD spell your Mages use. A Tattoo of Endurance (ToE) might also be a good choice because it will keep you damage dealers alive longer, but I have not tried that yet. I would not use a Rune of Balrog Flame (ToBF) here because you don't really care if your FB damage kills your enchanters, and your AMF should be enough to hold off other FB users. Tattoo of Augmentation (ToA) is utterly useless here. Although I highly recommend saving your money on BA rather than buying tattoos (unless its the RoE, since that is worth a lot of BA when used continuously, and does not cost as much as other tatts since it does not level up).

Note: If you are still a small mage (under 100k Minion Power (MPR) or so), don't upgrade your items as this is a waste of money better spent on Battle Allocation.

Finally, I would note that you should not be discouraged by not being able to beat people of the same MPR as you (even though with my current setup with this strat I can beat people well over my MPR), it is more important to get the exp now, even if you get it from weaker teams, so you can later buy the equipment that will make you better than the other teams.

Good luck, and if you try this strategy, please let me know how it worked for you!